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DIY Website Optimization Made Easy
If you have your own website - are you going round in circles struggling to understand the correct seo steps to take to enhance your position in search engines?
Read the full article here on success without stress for DIY Website Optimization Made Easy
or
Directly to source details here: Website Optimization
regards
mum kids
Diane
A View on Tenting
Campers happily sleeping in their tents on the front lawn this morning.
After a night of singing teenage songs, they awoke about 9.15 this morning and have trundled through the morning in a haze of tiredness. they have now started to escape the coolness of their tents to have cups of hot tea.
One of the lively crew has just been on his bike to Sainsburys to buy the group of 8 lots of morning goodies to eat, which saves me cooking breakfast, or should I say brunch.
One of them is sat here confessing to having only put one of the tents up correctly, I can't spot which one, but he assures me it's the pink one. The other two each have something not quite right with them, but at least they are not inside out. Now he tells me that all three tents are only held down with one tent peg. Hmmm.... Good job it wasn't so windy in the night.
And no complaints from the neighbours, so all in all they surely have had a great weekend camping. Happy campers.
Teenage depression and suicide - is it on the increase?
This is a rather upsetting post as it is 'close to home' and as a mother I feel such great sadness for parents of all teenagers who will, have or are suffering from depression to the point of undertaking the act of attempted or actual suicide.
My heart goes out tonight to the parents of a friend of one of my children. Obviously my child has come home from school terribly upset by what has happened to this friend.
We have shed a few tears together and no doubt will let flow many more before the evening is over as we wait to hear of the friends recovery.
The added sadness and concern is that this is the second friend within six months to have been affected by this apparently increasing action in teens.
This was never on the agenda of any of my friends when I was a teenager. So is this a modern day illness?
Are the pressures just far too great on our teenagers these days?
Is society going wrong? Parents? Teachers? The Government? Anyone? Anything?
If you or someone you know is concerned about teens depression or suicide, there is some information at this site and a
http://www.clinical-depression.co.uk/Depression_Information/teen.htm.
Life is too short not to live it.
A mum with kids
Washing Up .....
.... is not just another task for mums, it's for boys too!
Well, sort of...
My teenage son had me in fits of laughter tonight, yes, I'm easily amused.
Without prompting he took it upon himself to do the washing up. Now, what's so strange about that? Don't all kids do chores at home?
Well, firstly we have a dishwasher, although we don't always use it, save the environment and all that (added that bit in case my 'ethical' friend Karen is reading this later), so firstly it was a surprise to see him attempt to tackle the pots in the sink. I was on the phone at the time, so only half paying attention really.
However, I did notice him take a little peek in the dishwasher, which was full with clean crockery ready to be put away. He obviously decided it would be far too much hassle to empty and refill with the dirty ones and that washing by hand was a good time and effort saver!
Literally two minutes before he arrived at the sink, I had filled it with extremely hot water to soak them. You can imagine how quickly he pulled out his hands on first dip.
A little "ouch, that's hot mum" was followed by:
"What is it about mums having scald free hand?"
He then scrambled under the sink for the washing up gloves, which I never use, and took the next five minutes to get them on, swish his protected hands around in the water, mutter something else about the water being too hot and mums hands being made of asbestos, remove the gloves and vanish from the kitchen for ever!
...apparently he's left them to soak for a while :>)
hmmm.... we shall see!
Diane
Micro business start up happening at the kitchen table!
Very possibly....
I have set a deadline for Monday to have a clients website completed for review and final adjustment before uploading it to her server, so I am busy getting the "nitty gritty" bits and pieces in place, browser testing, SEO checks, pdfs looking good etc etc etc.
Being a mum working from home you just have to juggle those plates, after all you can only ignore the laundry for so long .... then you really do have to get those five washer loads in and out. I'm starting to wonder if the kids are bringing their friends laundry home with them, surely we don't have this many clothes!
So with a couple of loads under my belt, attention to the kids given, a reminder to feed them later set as well, I set to work at the kitchen table.
After a short while, a little one, ok, not so little at 14, slid onto the chair next to me, placed her lap top on the table and set about designing a website of her own. she had downloaded NVU a FREE website authoring tool, last week and she was exploring what she could do with it. There were of course several questions of "how do I", "how can I" ... do this or that, and yes, my work was put to one side whilst I attended to her needs.
Highly probable......
We explored what she wanted to do and why, what her motivation and ideas are. She's actually really interested in photography and art as well as fashion, wonder who she takes after! In the process, we talked about squdoo lenses as well and took a peek at one of my lenses, "how to make paper clay". She liked the idea of a lens, so she opened her account - I had to laugh when she got to the "what do you want to do with the money" part and I suppose there are no surprises that she should tick the "I just want the cash" box!!
Now motivated by the prospect of earning money from writing about something she is really interested in, she completed her little bio, edited and uploaded an image and completed her first section of her lens, pressed save, then made a list of the research she now wants to do in order to make her lens as good as she can. All her own work!
The only thing she wants my help with now is to sort out her paypal account so she can receive all the money she anticipates making from her squidoo lens.
Yes... looks like a micro business start up has indeed taken its first steps.....
Have you chosen your specialist knowledge squidoo lens yet?
Need a Paypal account to receive your "squidoo lens payments" - easy to set up and start earning, click the paypal banner below and get started today!
If you have something to say about what interests you and that will interest others, find your voice with squidoo, share what you know today, no matter what your age.
regards
Diane
micro business "expert" - to my daughter that is!
Another Baby
Congratulations to my niece and her husband on the birth of their second child, "Charlie" this evening.
Happiness Is....
this is the second baby to arrive within the last couple of months (different nieces)
How fantastic it is to be a "Great Auntie" yet again. Lots of excitement here with everyone thrilled that mum and baby are healthy. Well done guys and big hugs from us all. xx Di & co
How To Talk Yourself Out of a Sale
I went out with my sister the other day. She wanted to buy a new TV and needed some moral support.
Why she asked me I have no idea as I don't know one end of a TV from another, I hardly watch it, can just about operate the remote control and certainly have no idea whats inside the box.
Anyway....
She knew what her budget was, which, as it's just after Christmas was not the largest amount in the world, but then she didn't need a large telly.
So off we trek to the appropriate shops in the retail park. Now the first shop we went into was a very well known large store, one of those that sell everything from a pc, to the world! She spotted a telly she liked the look of, but really needed a few technical, and "what's included" questions answered.
Hmmm... nobody around. Eventually I 'accosted' a salesperson and asked for assistance. Well, to be fair, he was passing through to the back store room, but he assured us someone would come soon. Those of you who know me will realise that as shopping is one of my pet hates, waiting around is another, my sister is about as patient as I am, it must be a family trait!
We did give it 10 agonising minutes. Alas nobody arrived, nobody passed, that was about all we could stand - off we went. Next shop!
To cut the shopping story short....
She eventually finds a TV that she likes the look of. A keen assistant handled her questions and eventually it was a simple contest between two different makes with virtually the same spec, so the decision came down to brand preference, perceived technical performance and basic aesthetics of design.
Smiling assistant ushers her to the sales point. He dutifully collects her data, tells her what a wonderful, sensible, most appropriate choice she has made - of course she's feeling good about this purchase after 5 minutes of this. A bit of stressless success.
Then it happened......
Why didn't he stop talking!
The point where he almost lost the sale. It was very close!
He'd just spent something like 20 minutes attending to his customer, he'd done a great job, he had satisfied her every question and query, he had reassured on quality, reliability, benefits, budget, in fact no stone had been left unturned.
He'd got the sale..... but...
he wanted more....
he wanted the up-sell, in fact he was no doubt obliged to offer it - yes the dreaded added warranty!
He presented the benefits of the warranty. Sister duly listened. She didn't want it as it would have taken her way over her budget limit, the TV she had chosen was only just within it. She thanked him and politely refused.
He tried again, fair do's, but he added a few alarming reasons why she should really buy it. Oh dear says sister, why would those negative things happen? Another long explanation of the negatives and what the warranty would cover and why she really should buy it even though its going over her budget.
His 'information' raised more questions from my sister. He answered them all. Unfortunately by the time he had finished he had my sister virtually convinced that this, in fact most tv's of this type were bound to fail or break in some way in a short period of time.
He had now gone from convincing her that she had made a fabulous choice to believing that she shouldn't buy it all!
She very nearly didn't!
It took him a while but eventually he spotted the error of his ways and he reverted to the positive aspects of her choices and after a little calm thinking he 'let go' of the hope of the up-sell - I'm sure he finally had a vision of my sister walking out of the store empty handed - and what would that do to his targets for the month :)
The point is, yes by all means have something to up-sell, but SHUT UP and listen to your customer, don't try to up-sell something based on the negative emotional aspects when they are heavily conflicting with the customers positive reasons for buying the first item.
These sorts of events at least bring some fun to shopping! lol
regards
Diane
stressless success
calm thinking
Do you know how to organise your home office?
Well I know that I for one have been less than organised in my home office, which is an impostor as it's not actually a real home office at all, it 'pretends' to be one!
All the more reason for me to read how to 'Organise Your Home Office' Effortlessly...
Now I'm putting Sandy's teachings to good use. thanks Sandy.
regards
Diane
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Sandy Clyne works from home as a business psychologist, consultant & adviser to small business, executive coach, writer and professional speaker. My previous experience includes projects with Business Schools in the UK and abroad.
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Stressless Success
Rosette Gault: Paper Clay (Ceramics Handbooks)
Rosette Gault is the foremost authority on paper clay, highly recommend this if you want to get into the full technical aspects of paper clay and how you can use paper clay for professional ceramics.
Andrew Martin: The Essential Guide to Mold Making & Slip Casting (Lark Ceramics Books)
Highly recommended for making molds - beyond the basics of mold making and slipcasting ceramics.
Steven Pressfield: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
Excellent book, presented for easy reading and understanding of your resistance and how to overcome your personal blocks to improve your creativity and productivity. Sensibly written. I read the previous edition of a friends copy that did the 'rounds' - highly recommended.
